January 05, 2012

Thank you for the upgrade, AT&T!You know that new router that you sent me, it has celebratory flashing red indicator lights. Let me tell you how thrilled I was waiting on the phone for 2 hours for someone to tell me, "Yeah, you're router is defective." I also want to thank you for sending out a technician who also said, "Yeah, you're router is defective." Then he added to my joy by telling me, "Your phone line needs to be rewired in order to have the upgrade. Did I mention that this service call is $100 an hour?" Ka-ching! Can you say Xfinity?

I really wish the Luddites in San Francisco hadn't blocked Google from giving us free Wi-Fi.

Thanks to an unsecured network from a nieghbor's house and a spot in my kitchen, I have snuck back onto the web.

November 12, 2009

Basic algebra involving fractions and decimals stumped a group of City University of New York freshmen - suggesting city schools aren't preparing them, a CUNY report shows.

During their first math class at one of CUNY's four-year colleges, 90% of 200 students tested couldn't solve a simple algebra problem, the report by the CUNY Council of Math Chairs found. Only a third could convert a fraction into a decimal.

November 10, 2009

This is what I'm talking about! An ancient Greek wine cup that proves the Tillerman has been around a long time. Look as he sails downwind in search of a caipirinha. Unfortunately for ancient Tillerman, the search would last another 2,000 years.

The kylix, or shallow wine cup was a table-top piece used at all meals. Many were highly decorated to adorn banquet tables and spoke of the good taste of the host. This kylix of Dionysos Crossing the Sea was painted by the famous 6th century artist, Exekias, and the original is found in the Museum Antiker Kleinkunst, in Munich.

The scene depicts a Homeric hymn of Dionysos’ first appearance in Greece. On his journey he was seized by pirates, and frightened the pirates away by making wine pour from his boat, and the mast spring with grape vines. The pirates jumped overboard and were turned into dolphins. Dionysos’ appearance in Greece as a striking young man with “flowing hair” was the beginning of the long-lasting Cult of Dionysos centered around the gift of wine that he brought.

July 02, 2009

Fortunately, AT&T has stellar tech support.They managed to waste hours of my time reading their script to me.me:"Listen, I have a static IP address."monkey:"No sir, you do not have one. We changed it to DHCP."(I installed a new router, the old one went belly up.)me:"Are you sure? I'm looking at my setup guide from Pacebell and it says that I have a static IP. I think the DNS has changed.monkey:"No sir, you have DHCP."I don't know how may times they had me go to the DOS prompt and type in ipconfig/release?

And God said, "Let there be connectivity;" and there was connectivity.

Days later. my case was upgraded to second tier support. 2 minutes after talking to the technician, case closed, connectivity reestablished. Guess what? I have a static IP and the DNS had been changed. Thank you for using AT&T!